0:00 [Music] I know many of you have been excitedly looking forward to this day. I know that some of your parents have also been 0:18 praying. A lot of people have been praying for this meeting. But when I think about I believe the greatest revival in the Bible, do you want to take any guesses at which would have been the greatest 0:36 revival in terms of numbers? Genuine revival. Any guesses? Pentecost. Okay. Any others? John the Baptist. I think it was 0:59 Nineveh. I think it was the time when Jonah went to Nineveh. There was 120,000 people that came to repentance on that day. And as you think about it, okay, what 1:17 was this message that was shared that brought about the greatest revival of all time? And that's why I think more than the message, it's what's been happening in our 1:34 church and many others who have been praying for each of you and for all of us. And so uh after this meeting is over, go and thank your parents especially for praying for 1:52 you. Go thank your Sunday school teachers that have been praying for you. And for all of you others who have been praying, it says that some their rewards they get here on earth. For others, guess what? Their 2:11 rewards follow them into eternity. So, thank you for praying for this day. But listen to the message that brought the greatest revival, genuine revival. Because Jesus 2:28 said all of these people had genuinely repented. And the message is then Jonah began Jonah 3:4. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk and he cried 2:48 out said yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. Do you know how many words that is? Eight words. And those eight words brought the greatest revival. 3:06 So it was not merely the message that was being proclaimed, but God was moving mightily in their hearts, preparing the hearts so their hearts would be soft and ready to receive. And when I think about all that 3:25 God has done for us, if we truly believe that God has done so much for us, it will be a response to what he's done for us. We will give him our best. That's what giving God the 3:43 best. And you see that in the very beginning in Genesis chapter 4, if you turn with me, Genesis 4:4, when two people came to give an offering, you could see what was in their heart after God had made heaven and earth, what their response was to 4:02 that. Verse four, Genesis 4:4, Abel on his part also brought the firstlings of his flock or he gave the best. He went through all of his flock and he saw what's the best and I'm going to give that to God. And you know what happened to his 4:20 brother? His brother said, "Okay, let's find something and give it to God because I have to give something." And today also, young and old, we're going to have one of these two responses to God. One, we're going to come to God and 4:37 see what can I give maybe a leftover and I'll give it to God. And then there's going to be others that are going to say, "God, let me find out the best and I'm going to give it to you." So, I'm going to talk about three 5:02 pencils. But before I go to the three pencils, I'm going to ask you a question. You know, you have life, you have eyes, legs, all of these things. What did you pay God so that you could get all of these things that you have 5:21 today? What did you pay God? You can shout it out. I agree. You paid nothing. From the richest man to the poorest person, they all received life, eyes and 5:38 ears and all of that heart. But they didn't pay God one thing for it. It was a free It was It was a free gift. It was a free gift. The most important thing that we all have from youngest to oldest is a 5:57 free gift. We didn't earn it. It was something that God gave to us freely. And if you read here Romans 11 verse 35, Romans 11:35, or who has first given to God that it might be paid back to him 6:16 again? Who has first lent to God and said, God, you now owe me for something I gave you. Can anybody say that? That they gave to God. They end lend God money and now God is in debt to us. No, God has given everything to him given to 6:34 us free. But you see in this world each one of us has a choice with this free life that God gave us what we're going to do with it. For many people their life is like this pencil. 6:52 They took their life. And if this pencil is a picture of your life, they took their life and they used it all on themselves. They took it. The free gift of life that God gave to them. They took it and then they used it for themselves. 7:09 And you guys might know what this is. It's a sharpener. And then every time they use it for the world, what happens to that pencil? gets shorter and shorter and at the end of their life they say, "Oh, my life is 7:27 almost over. Here God, here take what's left of it. Oh, I'm retired. I've done everything I wanted to do. I've enjoyed this world. Okay, God, now there's something left of my life." Kind of like Cain. Oh, I took whatever I wanted. Now, 7:43 what else? Oh, that's left. Okay, God, you can have that. And in the days of Malachi, that's what they did. They offered to him the sick, the lame, the blind. They gave the what whatever was left over they gave to 8:00 God. For us also we each one of us has a choice to make every day and starting today. What do you want to do with your life? Do you want to be like this pencil which uses up all itself for itself and at the end of your life say 8:18 okay God here let me give you the leftovers. Do you know what Jesus did with his life? When the father gave Jesus his 8:40 life, he said, "God, you gave me this life. This this entire life is for you." It says in Romans 15:3, Jesus never pleased himself. It says in John 8:57 6:38, "I came from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me." God, you gave me this life, and I'm not going to use even a little bit for myself or for this world. I'm going to 9:15 give it all back to you. There's one thing I cannot do. Well, there's many things I can't do, but among the many things I can't do, one thing I can't do is to go back in time. I can never be your age 9:34 again. Whatever I've used for this world, I've used for the world. I can never give it back to God. But guess what? All of you who are young, you have a lot of your pencil that you can give to God. You can make a 9:53 choice today saying, "Lord, yes, Jesus never gave and used his life for himself. He never pleased himself. Lord, yes, I've used a little bit for myself already in pleasing myself, in doing things that I wanted to do, but 10:11 Lord, take the rest of my life. Like this longer pencil, take take the rest of my life, Lord. The days that I've wasted, I can't do anything about it. But for the days remaining, let me give it for you. And that's a choice that each one of us has 10:30 to make. What are you going to do with the life that God gave you freely? Are you going to use it for yourself? Or are you going to give it to God? I'm going to tell you a true story. A true story about a young 10:49 boy. This young boy grew up had a lot of things in his home. But as he went to the store one day, he looked at something, a toy that he wanted. He couldn't have 11:06 it, but he wanted it. And so he went there and even though he couldn't get it, he decided to do something that day. He was going to take it without anybody knowing about it. Do you know what that's called? 11:26 It's called stealing. And so that young boy looked around and saw if anybody was looking and then he went and took that toy from the store. Guess what his conscience was doing to him? It was bothering him a lot. But despite 11:45 that, he decided, I'm not going to listen to my conscience. I'm going to take it anyway. He took it back home, started playing with the toy. It was fun for a little bit, but then he said, "You know what? There's more toys that I don't have that's in 12:03 that store." So, he went back to that store. He looked around to see if there was anybody looking and he took another toy. His conscience bothered him, but do you think it bothered him as much as the first time? No. 12:22 Day after day went, the young boy went to the store. He didn't get caught, so he thought, "Okay, let me do it more." He took more toys. One day, he was sitting at home playing with his with his toys when his 12:40 mom came into the room, looked at the toys, and said, "Son, where did you get these toys? What should have that young boy said? I stole 12:59 it. But when someone does something wrong in their conscience, they're trying to hide. They end up doing something else. They've already stolen. They do something to cover it up. They tell a lie. They tell a lie. And so this young 13:17 boy told his mom, "Oh, I was going into the playground and I found it in the playground." Did he find it in the playground? No. And then what about the other toy you have there? I found that also in the playground. Do you think the mom 13:36 believed him? No. Pretty soon, the mom figured out that these toys weren't his, that he had taken it. He finally knew that he wasn't going to get away with it. So, the young boy told his 13:52 mom, "I've stole these from the store." The mom said, "Son, you need to go and give those toys back and apologize." Do you think that was 14:10 easy? That young boy had a very, very hard time thinking about what would happen the next day when he had to go and admit that he had stolen from the store. But he did. He went with his mom. His mom took him to the store and he 14:29 went there and apologized to the storekeeper. Probably the probably the most scary time in that young boy's life. He went and apologized to his mom, set matters right. But the sad thing 14:49 was the young boy, even though he apologized to his the storekeeper and his mom, who did he not apologize to? His sin was not only against the store and his mom for telling lies, but it was also against God. But this young 15:08 boy did not know anything about God. He just had a conscience like all of us do. And each one of us has a conscience which will tell us. And when I told you about that young boy, I'm sure you've had situations, maybe not in 15:24 a store, but in other situations where your conscience bothered you. Maybe when you talked back to your parents or you fought with somebody and your conscience bothered you. But the good thing was this young boy when he grew up a little 15:44 older, he heard about Jesus just like you are today. He heard about there's eternity after this life where you have to set matters right. eternity was forever. And thankfully that young 16:06 boy received that message and accepted the message and repented of his sins and apologized not only to his parents and that storekeeper, but also apologized to God. Something he never wanted to ever 16:25 do again. And that's what repentance means. Not just saying sorry. Do you think that young boy would ever want to go and steal again? No. He made a choice that day. I'm never ever going to steal again. That was repenting. He made a 16:46 choice to turn around and go in the other way. I'm not sure if you've ever been to a place where it smells extremely 17:05 bad. There's been places where I've been where it's extremely extremely bad. What I would have to do is I know that place over there is going to stink. So, what I do is I take a deep breath and then I run past that place and then I'd start 17:20 breathing again. And when I look at those types of places where it's extremely extremely smells bad, but in the midst of all that smell, I could see one animal that it doesn't bother it at all. And it's the pig. The pig can enjoy 17:39 it. It'll enjoy that smell. It enjoys the muck, everything. And Peter in second Peter chapter 2:22 talks about the pig that goes and enjoys that filth because that's its nature. Its 17:58 nature is to enjoy the filth. But the cat on the other hand even if it was going and accidentally falls on that muck, do you think it's going to enjoy it? It's going to jump up. It's going to 18:16 jump up, lick itself, cleanse itself, and keep walking. We're all born with a heart kind of like that pig that enjoys sin. When you go into the sun and you put 18:48 those two things, wax or clay, what happens to the clay when you put it in the sun? You're right. It hardens. When you put clay in the sun, it'll harden. It would have been soft before that, but it gets 19:06 harder and harder the more you put it in the sun. But that same sun, if you take wax and put it in the sun, what's going to happen? It will melt. And and this this is a candle, a heart-shaped candle. And if I put this in the sun, 19:25 it's going to melt. But if I take this heart here, which is made of clay, and I put it in the sun, it's going to get hardened. And unfortunately, we're all born with a hard heart. And there was a man like 19:41 that. His name was is he was Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And you might remember God asked him to let his people go. And it says there, if you turn with me to Exodus 8:15. Exodus 8:15. But when Pharaoh saw that he there 20:13 was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them as the Lord said. And this is what happens when we harden our hearts. Sometimes God makes us suffer some consequences like the Pharaoh did, 20:32 right? The first consequence he faced was, do you remember? The river Nile became blood. And if he had repented there, he said, "I'm sorry. I should have obeyed and let the people go." The only thing he would have suffered 20:51 was a couple of days without water in the fish that died. But no, soon as the water turned back and he could drink it, he got some relief. The consequences of his sin was gone for a while. What did he do? He hardened 21:11 himself. Okay, next the frogs. And while the punishment is there, he says, "Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. And then once the frogs go away, what happens? He hardens again. Then the flies, then the lice, then the lightning 21:28 and hail, all of these things, one after another. And every time he hardens it more. And finally, if he only had listened early on, he could have saved himself so much of consequences. 21:46 But the longer he hardened his heart, did it get better or worse? It got worse. Finally, his his son dies. If only he had listened much earlier, he wouldn't have had to face 22:05 that. But did it end there? No. His entire army was buried under the Red Sea. And so that's what a hard heart is like. It gets harder and harder. But can I what can I do to make 22:24 this soft again? Pour water. Yeah. And a lot of people they try to do things like that. They pour water and they try to make their hard heart soft. But guess what? A clay heart will always be a clay heart. 22:42 And a clay heart will always get hard when it goes in the sun. What you need to do is not change and make the clay heart better. You need to take the heart of clay out, the hard heart, and get a new heart. And that's the wonderful promise 23:01 in God's word. God does not change our hard heart and make it better. He does something that only he can do. I can't do it. Your teachers can't do it. Your parents can't do it. Only God can take a stony heart and give 23:21 you a heart of flesh. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 36. And I want you to always remember this verse. Candles are made of wax. Crayons are made of wax. So, if you see a crayon and you put that in the sun, what's 23:40 going to happen? It's going to melt. And that's a picture of a soft heart. A heart that when God says something or your parents say something, it's willing to be soft and receive it. So, turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 36 26. 23:59 Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of 24:15 flesh. Verse 27, I will put my spirit, that means he's going to put his Holy Spirit in you and cause you to walk in his ways. And so that's something that only God can do for 24:33 you. And so you can see if you see that you have a hard heart and you're honest with God and say, "Lord, I have a hard heart. I see it. Every time I do something wrong, instead of apologizing, instead of saying I'm 24:50 sorry, I justify myself. I make an excuse for it. I say it wasn't my fault." Those are all symptoms of a hard heart. And the only one who can give you a new one is God. I want to ask you a question. Does 25:15 God keep his promises all the time? Okay. If a promises has two parts to it, one part that you have to do and one part that God does. If you do your part, do you 25:35 believe God will do his part? Are you convinced of it? Who do you think will do a better job of keeping their part of the promise? I think so, too. I believe God will do a better. And this is something that I learned when I was a very young 25:52 Christian that sometimes when we see a promise in God's word and we read it, we may not feel that the promise has come true. But we have to remember that we don't 26:12 live based on our feelings but based on God's word. And so God does keep his promises. And I wanted to tell you these verses that I am going to share with you are the verses that I heard when I was a new 26:29 Christian because I asked, okay, I'm going to tell God my I if I confess my sins or tell God my sins, how can I be sure that he's going to forgive me of my sins? Because sometimes I tell God my my sins. I don't hide it. I tell him my 26:48 sins, but I don't feel like I'm forgiven of my sins. And that's a question I had as a young Christian. And some of you may have that question. You may not feel forgiven. But it says here in first John, if you turn with me to first John chapter 27:07 1 verse 9, if we confess, that means tell God our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So my part is to tell 27:25 God my sins. What's God's part? To cleanse us. cleanse me from all my sins. Right? So, if I'm doing my part of confessing my sins, will God do his part? Yes. And as a young person, a young 27:43 Christian, I needed to know that every promise in God's word, if I keep my part, God will definitely keep his part. And so I told God all my sins, every single sin that I've ever done. H Does God know every sin that 28:03 I've all all done? Yes. God does God know every sin that you've done. But God wants us to admit that we've done our sins and not put the blame on other people or put it under the rug or cover it up. He wants us to 28:21 be honest with him and tell him all our sins. That's the first thing that we must do. Be honest and say, "Lord, these are the sins that I've done." Each one of us, whether we're young or old, there has to be us 28:40 admitting and being honest before God, telling him everything that we've done. Second, we turn around. Lord, yes, I've been disobedient to my parents. I've lied. I've cheated. I've stolen. I've done all these things. 28:59 I don't want to do them anymore. Lord, help me. I want to turn around. I want to repent. That's what repentance is. I want to turn around. And I want to believe. I want to believe that you paid the price. When Jesus died on the cross, 29:16 the last thing he said, one of the last things he said was, "It is finished." That means he paid the penalty of all our sins. There's nothing you can do to wipe away your sins. Nobody in this entire 29:34 world can wipe away their sins. The only way they can receive the forgiveness of sins is to come to God and say, "God, I cannot forgive myself. I cannot pay the p penalty for my sin. I come to you and I freely receive your 29:54 forgiveness." And it takes humility to say, "Lord, I can't do it. I humbly receive from you the forgiveness of sins. No matter how good or bad you lived your life, not one person can forgive get receive the forgiveness of 30:12 sins based on their own effort. It's something that we all have to come to God and say, "God, I can't do it. Please forgive me." And I wanted to tell you that just like you even on your birthdays receive a 30:31 gift. Jesus said in John chapter 1, turn with me to John chapter 1, as he came to his own people and his own people did not receive him, but to as many to as 30:47 many as received him. John 1:12, but as many as received him, to them he gave them the right to become children of God. So what's my part? When God's knocking on the door of my 31:06 heart, I receive him. What's God's part? As many as received him, I gave them the right to become children of God, to be born again, to be born into God's family. And it's surprising so many people could have come to Jesus and 31:24 said, "Jesus, I receive you." Would he have allowed them to become his children? Yes. But it surprises me even till today even though it's so simple to receive him that many don't. And so I ask you young people 31:48 today confess your sins. Apologize to the Lord. Set matters right with him. Set matters right with others. Ask God to forgive you of all your sins and receive him. And it says to everyone who comes to 32:08 him. And that's the bookmark you you might have seen. As many as received him, he gave them the right to become children of God. If we receive him, he will allow us to be his children. And the one who comes to him, have you come 32:23 to Jesus? He will certainly never cast you out. If we do our part, God will do his part. And so it's important that even if we don't feel like it, we must remember God keeps his promises. Pray with me. 32:42 Heavenly Father, I pray Lord that each one of us, Lord, would come to you, Lord. You've given us a life freely. And I pray that each one of us will give that life back to you. I pray that you would forgive us and cleanse us 32:57 from every sin. Lord, clothe us with your righteousness, Lord, and give us a right standing with you. I pray that each one of us will truly be born again even today in Jesus name. Amen. [Music]
